The Eric Wroolie Blog

Overpass Experiences

Definitions of Done on Hanselminutes

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Ken Schwaber, one of the founders of Scrum, is the guest of this week’s Hanselminutes podcast. He talks about something that is dear to my heart– “What is done?”

One of my biggest headaches as a developer is trying to convince junior developers of the necessity of unit testing and refactorable code. There is never enough time. It’s always a nice-to-have.

I’ve been involved in more projects during the 11th hour than I’ve been involved in project outsets. Frequently, my involvement has to do with a misunderstood requirement which require a full rewrite in ordedr to get it to work. It requires loads of manual testing because no one knows with certainty if the new code breaks the old code.

Unit tests can only be written by developer at the time of development. If they are not there, the developer has no business saying they are finished with that bit of functionality.

It’s a good podcast. If you have a chance, Google it and have a listen.

The Aimless Evening Ride

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It seems I’ve been waiting all winter for the late summer nights so I can take my motorcycle out on the country roads of Oxfordshire for some aimless riding. 

An aimless ride is so much more superior to a daily commute.  Although I much prefer commuting on the bike instead of a car, the humdrum of the daily route causes your mind to wander and think about something outside of the here and now–for me, it is usually work.  But an aimless ride– a ride where the route is determined at junctions by looking in all directions and seeing which one look most promising– keeps you in the moment.  You are constantly admiring new scenery and looking for new pot holes.  You don’t have the luxury of mentally wandering off.

Monday night, I was able to watch the sunset from the WWI monument near Wooley.  Here’s a pic.

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Wroolie on Rails

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So I’ve started playing with Ruby finally. I have no plans on dropping c#, but I really want to see what all of the hype is about.

Like .Net, I get the feeling (so far) that it tries to do too much for you. I remember being at a seminar at the Microsoft Campus in Reading when .Net first came out and a 5-minute database application was developed with all wizards. The experienced developers in the crowd groaned. But, eventually, we all found out how to dig down deeper and optimise. I guess that’s how Ruby will work too.

A few things I really like about the Ruby on Rails framework so far:

1. MVC by default

2. Automated Testing is emphasized

3. Strict Object Orientation

4. Stresses Agile development

Like many things, this is just a fad for me. I’m playing with the language (unless it is really, really good and I decide to be an out of work Ruby contractor newbie) and will probably just write some sample apps to see how it handles before moving on.

The book I’m reading is “Agile Development with Rails” by Dave Thomas and David Heinemeier Hansson. So far I am enjoying the book. My favourite line so far: “Professional programmers write tests.”